A Sudden Flash
by Okoriwadsworth
Summary: Barry Allen meets Patty Spivot. Unfortunately, Patty Spivot doesn't know he's the Flash. Barry Allen is also STARVING. What will this mean?


A Sudden Flash.

(Author's Note: There will be no WestAllen here. It's not that I dislike Iris West as a character, or Candice Patton as a person. Iris is great, and Candice Patton seems terribly nice. It's just that Iris and Barry are foster brother and foster sister, and I'm supposed to imagine that they are married and deeply in romantic love with each other. That idea always hit me wrong. So in this fic, at least, they're extremely close but Iris is with Eddie and Barry is with…. Well, you'll see.)

_**8 years ago in Central City….**_

Barry Allen was hungry. More honestly, he was STARVING. You see, ever since he had become the Flash, one of the side curses, or benefits, was that he needed to consume a gigantic amount of calories just to keep from passing right the hell out. Lord knows he had read enough articles on that Reddit website Cisco had told him about on how to keep someone with a high metabolism off of hypoglycemic trouble. But, and this part everyone who considered themselves part of Team Flash understood, his secret identity being a closely-guarded secret meant that he had to bring food anywhere he went for fear of passing out and not being able to explain how.

But today? He had a date with his dream girl, Patty Spivot, and he wasn't about to blow it by pigging out beforehand. So, by the time he showed up at Central City's toniest French restaurant Le Paddock for their 1st date, he was more famished than he ought to be. Even sitting still, he could feel his stomach growling heavily.

That didn't bother him though, because he was happy. Ever since he could remember, he had always wanted romantic love. He had craved it, to the point where for a brief time, he thought he had found it with his foster sister Iris West. But he knew he was lost when the cold reality of what he had thought hit him. So when Patty Spivot asked him out, he was so stunned that he stuttered before almost bouncing up and down in excitement.

However, and he would realize this later, he had again failed in the lessons Oliver Queen had taught him. If one is hungry, perhaps the exact wrong place to go is a French fine-dining restaurant known for their small portions but excellent wine. Nonetheless, he figured he'd be able to get something rich like a beef bourguignon to keep himself from going absolutely insane with hunger, or perhaps even passing right out on the first date.

He was wrong. Worse than being wrong, it happened in sections. He felt his head getting heavy over the salad course, and it was down to willpower and well-timed pinches to his extremities that kept him from passing out right there and then. But, even in his exhausted state, he was still able to hold a good conversation.

And then, it happened. Right as the main course came out, Barry Allen collapsed out of his chair and fell to the ground. And Patty Spivot freaked right the hell out. She called Joe West, and Caitlin Snow in a perfect streak.

After all, Patty Spivot had known Barry had been struck by lightning. Joe mentioned it, along with how happy he was his foster son had survived such a thing. She even knew Caitlin Snow was his personal doctor, which felt odd for a beat until she remembered that anyone who was struck by lightning probably had all manner of weird side effects and symptoms that only someone with Dr. Snow's skills could address.

But this? This couldn't have possibly been a normal thing. People don't just pass out.

So when Joe and Caitlin showed up, in Joe's lovingly maintained Cadillac El Dorado, Patty jumped in the backseat alongside an unconscious Barry Allen. She liked him a lot, and even if she hadn't, she couldn't imagine being so callous as to just dump someone in the backseat of a car and go on about their day with no worries whatsoever. She had to make sure he was ok.

_**A few hours later, at STAR Labs…..**_

Patty Spivot was shocked. Literally, her mouth had not left the ground since she walked in. This place, where apparently her date received all of her medical treatment, was a first-class science facility. They had biotech and medical equipment that wouldn't be out of place at the Mayo Clinic, or a world-class research hospital. And this Caitlin Snow woman, who seemed kind if a little frosty, was clearly over-qualified for what looked like regular medical care.

Still, though, they had wanted her to wander around and get a sense of the place. At least the black-haired Latino man who called himself Cisco Ramon had, to great disapproval from both her partner and Caitlin Snow. Apparently, there was something she wasn't being told. She wasn't worried, though. Once Barry was ok, and god what were they DOING, she'd turn detective mode on and figure out what it was they were so eager to hide from her.

At that exact moment, though, they came and got her. Later, when she was back within herself, she would find herself amused by her reaction. It was funny, thinking back on it. In the moment, though, she had only one thing that kept coming to the front of her mind.

"What the fuck? What the fuck is this?" a shell-shocked Detective 2nd Grade Patty Spivot kept repeating, as her date Barry Allen stood in front of her in the suit the Flash wore. "Are you the Flash, Barry?"

"Yes, I am. I hope you understand why I couldn't have told you before, Patty. I didn't want this to be how you found out, either. I figured, quite honestly, that I would tell you when the time was right, when we were sure of what we meant to each other" Barry said, the earnestness and genuine care in his voice stirring something deep inside of her. She couldn't wrap her hands around the feeling, but she knew she liked it.

"But why did you pass out, Barry?" she asked, wanting to cut to the quick so she could figure out what to do next.

"Oh, that. Turns out that, when I became THIS, I also inherited the need to consume 10,000 claories to prevent myself from becoming hypoglycemic. I didn't want you to think I wasn't taking our date seriously, so I wasn't eating like crazy before the date. I also didn't know that the place we went served really small portions like that. I just wanted you to have the best night you possibly could" says Barry, and despite herself, she giggled.

"Oh, Barry. We're going out on another date. And this time, we're going to a barbecue joint. You don't have to worry about not eating, and risking passing out, to impress me. I like you, and I want to see where this goes" she smiled, before hugging the Flash.

_**Present Day…..**_

As it turned out, it went perfectly. Barry found the peace, and romantic love, he had always wanted. Patty loved him, and he loved her. They routinely did little things that would have been diabetes-inducing sweet on anyone else, but were just perfect for them.

Patty got brought in to Team Flash, absolutely. And after the 2nd particle accelerator explosion, she became a speedster herself. Cobalt Blue was her name, and she and the Flash worked together perfectly.

Eventually, they had kids. Twins, actually. And on rainy days, Patty watched their kids and thought all of this, all of the joy, happened in a sudden flash. If she was being honest with herself, her date passing out was the best thing that could have ever happened to her.


End file.
